The Pledge

As a foreign correspondent, Bruce Bacon had made his mark as a courageous, articulate, and professionally respected reporter. As a human being, he had gained a far greater understanding of the moral dimension of civilization and the fragility of humankind. During his assignment to India, when World War II was coming to an end, he had followed up a variety of leads concerning people of all political persuasions, and as a result of his brief contact with a member of the Communist Party, he found himself mysteriously hustled back to the United States.

There he is plunged into the McCarthy madness, stripped of his career, abandoned by friends and colleagues, and railroaded into jail by a congressional committee. His one salvation is the passionate and feisty Molly Maguire, daughter of admirers of the "Wobblies," who grew up in the thirties, a woman who will stick with him through hell or high water and whose love and faith will sustain him in his ordeal.

This book, like no other work of fiction, brings to life a dramatic and shameful period of American history. No one is better able to tell this story than Howard Fast. He himself was a target of the McCarthy "witch hunt" and served time in jail for refusing to reveal the names of people who he believed were being falsely accused.